With more than 25 ballets in the repertoire history of Royal Danish Ballet, Balanchine is a key choreographer for the company. Ad the proximately 20 ballets by Robbins and Martins, and the strong NYCB link emerges. It does not stop there. Plus-10 Danish dancers have been engaged by NYCB, some in very central positions and Stanley Williams, a key figure in NYCB and School of American Ballet, is an alumni of the RDB school and a principal dancer and teacher at RDB. Today RDB also have a handfull of SAB-alumnies, including principal dancer Amy Watson. Both companies are headed by a Danish principal who has spent most of his career in NYCB. Next season's highligt includes productions by two RDB/NYCB alumnies, a work by Ratmansky, who have been a principal in one and a key choreographer for both companies and a guest apperance by NYCB. And yet the two companies seems so different. RDB is probably the strongest dramatic company worldwide as demonstrated recently in "The Lady of the Camellias" and NYCB hold the title for abstract ballets.
Nikolaj Hübbe presented his repertoire for his fifth season. In answer to financial cutbacks he plans a season of big splash ballets including three Russian mastodonts: Alexei Ratmansky's"Coq D'Or, Christopher Wheeldon's "Sleeping Beauty" and his own and Eva Draw's take on "La Bayadere". The Ratmansky and Hübbe ballets have received generous sponsorships from Annie & Otto Johs. Detlef's Fonde. It was also mentioned at the press briefing that foundations have approached the RDB in order to secure a return of this season's outstanding production of "The Lady of the Camellias" in 2014 and hopefully also as a DVD production.
The season will also include among others John Neumeier's "Romeo & Juliet" and new productions of August Bournonville's "Kermes in Brügge" and "La Ventana", directed by Ib Andersen and Gudrun Bojesen. And the Danish audience will finally be able to see NYCB dancing among other works "Symphony in C" on the Opera stage.
There are ballets that suit specific companies as if they were made for them. And in relation to the RDB, several work by John Neumeier shares that special quality, in fact to the degree that the works he has choreographed outside RDB has proven a better fit than the major works he has done specifically on the company. His "Romeo and Juliet" and to a lesser degree "A Midsummer Night's Dream" emphasises the RDB's extraordinary qualities as a dramatic broad-reaching company and are probably performed better here than anywhere else.
"The Lady of the Camellias" places itself effortlessly in the same tradition and looks like a work that should rightfully take it place in the standard repertoire. That might not happen for the wrongest reason. As it is finance limits the run to 14 performances this spring in costumes rented from Paris Opera Ballet, and will not return for next season. The company cannot afford it, so "The Lady" will not be a long lasting relationship, but a brief spring romance, which made this love story as sad as it can be.
